File:Dr.Sadasivan Sreemathy Lal (Dr.S.S.Lal).jpg

English: Dr. S.S. Lal (Sadasivan Sreemathy Lal) is a leading intellectual from India who has played a seminal role in transforming Public Health internationally. Starting from a humble background, Dr. Lal has shown the way of how any dedicated individual could rise to the international stage and make huge impacts on social service delivery.

His focus was on ensuring the highest quality care delivery in a very limited resource setting. During his stint in East Timor, and later through program implementation in Ethiopia, Zambia, Vietnam, and Bangladesh, he applied his hands-on learning to get things done. He was noted for his ability to cut through the bureaucracy with simple innovations. When asked about it, he refers to his background as a humble Indian and how it has contributed to his success abroad in hostile environments.

Dr. Lal began his career as a physician and soon he emerged as an influencer who revolutionized public awareness about the way health care is delivered in the country. He made his foray into popular imagination through his popular health show, which ran to 500 episodes on India’s first global satellite TV channel. He directed and presented the show, interacting with thousands of people and touching their lives all through the ten long years the show was aired.

Later, he took over his role with the WHO and oversaw program implementation in over twenty-five countries across Asia, Africa and Europe. His long and fruitful international career saw him emerging as a tough taskmaster and a deft fund manager who cut no corners when it came to the final service delivery. Dr. Lal was able to negotiate the complex and winding mazes of bureaucracy and institutionalized corruption in these countries while ensuring quality service to its most vulnerable members.

It is this learning that brought Dr. Lal to the question that changed his life. If he could create so much value to so many people across the world, shouldn’t he be at least trying to deliver the same in his homeland?

That led to a long phase of contemplation, after which he decided to take up a challenging role back in India. After all, it is from India that he started tracing the great journey that took him to all these places. His strong roots and a huge network has been waiting back home to be exploited, in delivering sustainable services to the most vulnerable rungs of society.

Consequently, Dr. Lal took up his present position as the President of the Kerala unit of All India Professional Congress, an umbrella body for professionals from all walks of life. A multifaceted personality and a cross-disciplinary visionary, Dr. Lal has been quite successful in directing the organization towards solving the pressing problems of society. He has been successful in placing the organization as a corrective force in the political landscape of Kerala. He is also currently heading the Department of Public Health at Global Institute of Public Health (GIPH, India) and is on a mission to create a cadre of competent public health professionals for India and the world.

Apart from his professional achievements, Dr Lal is a celebrated author and media director. His creativity has generated ripples across the cultural circles of the country. He is also known for his captivating photographs and his contributions as an art connoisseur. In his spare time (which is quite scarce these days!), you will find him reading at the quaint corner of his office at Vellayambalam, Thiruvananthapuram. He is also keen on interacting with young professionals and students who are in want of a solid direction to their careers in social service in India and abroad.

EDUCATION • PhD: Health policy (public defense awaited in March 2019), University of Leiden, Netherlands • MBBS: Medicine; Trivandrum Medical College, India, 1990 • MBA: Masters of Business Administration; IGNOU, New Delhi, India, 2010 • MPH: Masters of Public Health; SCT Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, India, 1998 • PGDM: Post graduate diploma in Management; IGNOU, India, 1997 • PGDHRM: Post graduate diploma in HR Management; IGNOU, India, 1998 • B.Sc.: Bachelor Degree in Chemistry; India, 1982

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS • Member, Technical Review Panel, The Global Fund, Geneva • Vice-Chair, WHO-led global subgroup/core group on public-private mix (PPM) in TB • Member, WHO-led global subgroup on pediatric TB • Member, WHO Global Task Force on digital health for tuberculosis • Reviewer, WHO bulletin • WHO-designated TB expert and Trainer • Member, ICMR’s International Scientific Advisory Group of for India TB Research Consortium • PhD thesis evaluator for All India Institute of Medical Science, New Delhi, India • International Coordinator, Indian Medical Association • Member, Board of Governors, Association of Kerala Medical Graduates, North America • Guest Faculty (Honorary Professor), Global Institute of Public Health, India • Guest faculty: Research Institute of TB, Tokyo, Japan • Guest faculty: Achutha Menon Centre, India - National Public health school in India • Member, Committee for drafting State Health Policy Kerala State (1999) • Member, Health Policy Committee of Kerala State Government (1995-96

INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE • India, East Timor, Switzerland, USA (long term residence) • Cambodia, Ukraine, Malysia, China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Tanzania, Ethiopia, DR Congo, Zambia (program implemntaiton)

IMPORTANT HONORS AND AWARDS • Dr. Menda memorial National Oration Award, Indian Medical Association, 2012 • Ranbaxy-Indian Medical Association National Oration award, 2005 • Award for the Best Anchor of weekly Television health show, 2001 • Award of National Polio Plus Committee of Rotary International, 1997-98 • National award for the best IMA secretary in India, 1995

RELEVANT PUBLICATIONS • Vijayan Shibu, Shah Daksha, Chopra Rishabh, Khaparde Sunil, Gupta Devesh, Sadasivan Lal, Salve Jyoti, Rade Kiran, Vadera Bhavin, Karad Amit, Taralekar Radha, Bharaswadkar Sandeep, Khetrapal Minnie, Gandhi Ravdeep Kaur, Jondhale Vaishnavi, Mahapatra Sudip, Kumta Sameer, Nair Sreenivas Achutan, Kamble Sanjeev, Dewan Puneet. Tapping private health sector for public health program? Findings of a novel intervention to tackle TB in Mumbai, India. Indian Journal of Tuberculosis 67 (2020) 189-201. • Nayar, K Rajasekharan and Sadasivan, Lal and Shaffi, Muhammed and Vijayan, Bindhya and P Rao, Arathi, Social Media Messages related to COVID-19: A content analysis (March 25, 2020). • Riddhi Doshi, Dennis Falzon, Bruce V. Thomas, Zelalem Temesgen, Lal Sadasivan, Giovanni Battista Migliori, and Mario Raviglione. Tuberculosis control, and the where and why of artificial intelligence. European Respiratory Journal. 2017 Apr; 3(2): 00056-2017. • Muhammed Shaffi, Kesavan Rajasekharan Nayar, and SS Lal. Diphtheria Deaths in Kerala, Signs of an Impending Crisis. Economic and Political weekly. Vol - L No. 43, October 24, 2015S. • S. Lal, S. Sahu, F. Wares, K. Lönnroth, L. S. Chauhan, M. Uplekar. Intensified scale-up of public-private mix: a systems approach to tuberculosis care and control in India. INT J TUBERC LUNG DIS 15(1):97–104. • S. S. Lal, Mukund Uplekar, Itamar Katz, Knut Lonnroth, Ryuichi Komatsu, Hannah Monica Yesudian Dias and Rifat Atun. Global Fund financing of public–private mix approaches for delivery of tuberculosis care. Tropical Medicine and International Health • S.S. Lal, R.S. Vasan, Sankara Sarma, K.R. Thankappan. Knowledge and attitude of college students in Kerala towards HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases and sexuality. Natl MedJ India 2000;13:231-6 • Puneet K Dewan, S S Lal, Knut Lonnroth, Fraser Wares, Mukund Uplekar, Suvanand Sahu, Reuben Granich, Lakbir Singh Chauhan. Improving tuberculosis control through public-private collaboration in India: literature review. BMJ, doi:10.1136/bmj.38738.473252.7C • Donna Lee, S. S. Lal, Ryuichi Komatsu, Alimuddin Zumla, and Rifat Atun. Global Fund Financing of Tuberculosis Services Delivery in Prisons. Journal of Infectious Diseases. DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jis042 • Pantoja, K. Lönnroth, S. S. Lal, L. S. Chauhan, M. Uplekar, M. R. Padma, K. P. Unnikrishnan, J. Rajesh, P. Kumar, S. Sahu, F. Wares, K. Floyd: Economic evaluation of public-private mix for tuberculosis care and control, India. Part II. Cost and cost-effectiveness; INT J TUBERC LUNG DIS 13(6):705–712 • Pantoja, K. Floyd, K. P. Unnikrishnan, R. Jitendra, M. R. Padma, S. S. Lal, M. Uplekar,L. S. Chauhan, P. Kumar, S. Sahu, F. Wares, K. Lönnroth: Economic evaluation of public-private mix for tuberculosis care and control, India. Part I. Socio-economic profile and costs among tuberculosis patients; INT J TUBERC LUNG DIS 13(6):698–704 • L S Chauhan, S S Lal, S Sahu, F Wares. Successful PPM DOTS scale-up in India: assessment of contribution of different health care providers: Int J Tuberc Lung Dis 2006; 10: S281. • S.S. Lal, K. Hemachandran, R.V. Asokan: Role of IMA in the public-private mix initiatives of the RNTCP, India, In Emerging issues in Public Health, SCTIMST, India. • SS Lal, RV Asokan, Gutta Suresh. IMA and TB control: a journey from local PPM DOTS pilot projects to global platform. IHSP, 2010.

• S.P. Agarwal, Shruti Sehgal, S.S. Lal; Chapter 15, Public-Private Mix in the Revised National TB Control Programme, Tuberculosis Control in India, Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi, 2005 (Book Chapter)